My Best Friends Brother

Chapter 176

I hadn't called her to come down yet, I didn't want to force her into such an emotionally volatile situation before she was ready. I push my tear soaked face up from Josh's chest to see May with her hand very much in Hope's, her weak body shaking as she tries to stand in the middle of the staircase.

She looks so fucking small. Innocent isn't a word most people would associate with May but it's the only one I can think of right now, she truly looks like she's just a kid.

Hesitantly, she glances around the red eyes of everybody staring back at her. I'm not sure how much she heard, but the quiver in her bottom lip is enough to tell me that she's fucking terrified of what everybody is going to do now.

Brie slowly shuffles Heather off her lap ready to come to her sister, but Lee is already shoving her way past me. She grabs hold of May's wrists and practically pulls her down the stairs into her arms.

"Oh you stupid... precious... beautiful girl." Lee sobs, stroking May's head with her fingertips and looking at her like she's just a toddler again.

May crumbles instantly, falling to her knees and wrapping her arms around Lee's stomach, her head resting gently on my sister's ever growing bump.

"I'm so sorry Leah... I'm so sorry..." May quivers and shakes, her voice weaker than I've ever heard it. Lee drops straight to her knees in front of her, holding May's head in her hands and looking directly into our matching eyes.

"No angel, I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry that I made you feel like this was your only option." Lee holds May's head to her chest, rocking them both back and forth until I'm not sure who's tears are who's. "Please forgive me... Firecracker, please forgive me." May just keeps shaking her head like she doesn't want Lee to be saying those words, she doesn't feel in her heart like she's owed any kind of forgiveness, mostly because she genuinely believes that Lee never did anything wrong in the first place.

The ironic thing is that May understood more than anybody else Lee's desire to keep Heather away from her. May has always considered herself a walking time bomb of destruction, she never resented her or felt that Lee was wrong for keeping Heather away from the aftermath of such an explosion.

May is like Brie in many ways, their need to protect the people around them, even from themselves, is unmatched.

They both continue to cry and plead with each other for forgiveness, until another body drops at their side. Brie wraps the both of them up in her arms and takes it in turns to kiss both their heads, like she's just discovered them both again after a lifetime away.

The moment Lee hugs her back, it's like the world is right again. The planets realign when souls unite. There's going to be a lot of falling stars tonight...

Steve tries his best to keep the kids distracted, but once Heather spots May on the floor, that's it. She comes running across the room and practically dump tackles her way through the group hug to smash May onto the floor and throw herself around her body.

"Auntie May! You've missed so much! I was in the hospital with all this free jello, then I met an angel and he told me I was pretty! Oh, oh, and Dad made me this crazy smoothie with peanut butter and chocolate and... Oh, oh, and Liam got this new game where you shoot stupid zombies in the head and I'm soooo good at it!" May can't even hear her, just laughing and sobbing in equal measures as she holds her closer and closer with each breath.

Both Lee and Brie just look on at them, the soul sisters wrapped up tightly in each other and blubbering as they watch Heather grab hold of May's face and kiss her all over, not seeming to care for the salty tears that coat her skin.

"It's okay May... I'm here now... You don't have to cry anymore, I missed you too." Heather's beautifully majestic voice comes out of her giant smile as she pins May down to the floor, the true extent of how weak May's body is evidenced by the fact she can't even sit up with this tiny little girl on top of her.

I watch the threads of our torn families start to stitch themselves back together, weaving our tapestry back into its complete form until the tears finally stop... and laughter takes over the room once again.

Fuck, that sounds good.

Amongst the boxes of wedding supplies and poorly placed Christmas decorations that now cover this living room, I can still see the house that it used to be underneath. It's been called home to so many, yet this is the first time I feel like the entire family has been here for so long.

"Are you okay?" I finally raise my head up from looking over Josh's shoulder to see his face, he's wanted nothing more than his two best friends to reunite but I know he wishes it was under anything other than these circumstances. He's been crying too, but I'm pretty sure that I look like absolute shit right now compared with him.

Time to fix the last thing I fucked up this week.

"I'm so sorry, I'm sorry I've been so fucking shit for these last few days. I let all the crap with Liam get inside my head, once I thought that I'd have to leave you so that you could keep him I just couldn't let the –"

"Wait," he interrupts, holding my head in his hands but pulling back enough that he can look directly into my eyes. "You thought... You thought that you'd have to leave me so I could keep Liam? That's what you've been dealing with?"

I realise I never really told him out loud that it was what I thought was going to happen. I just assumed that he had thought the same thing, it seemed like the logical fucking answer to me.

Josh grips my jaw and crashes his lips straight onto mine, my hands immediately coming up to hold the back of his neck so he can't fucking let go, quickly forgetting that anybody else is still in this room. Brie and Lee aren't the only ones that finally feel whole again.

There's nothing like kissing him, there's nothing in this fucking world that replenishes my heart and soul like kissing this man.

Even when he pulls away, his head is still firmly pressed against mine, his hand never letting go of my skin and keeping us connected.

"That's never happening Miles, I can't believe you even thought that. I'm not picking between the both of you. You are mine, I'm not letting you go and I'm not letting him go. We're a family so don't even fucking think about that, it was never on the fucking table for me." He says it like even the thought is fucking madness, which now that I find myself back in his arms I realised it was. "I'm never leaving you Miles, and I'm never letting you leave either. I can't live without my stars."

I can't do it without him now either; he's the love of my fucking life. Whatever hits us, it hits us together.

Encasing my arms around him once again, all I can think about is falling asleep with him tonight. I really fucking need to, I just need to be with him... I always need to be with him.

We both laugh when we turn to see what's happening to all the weirdos on the floor, Jayce and Steve now having joined their other half's so both couples sit with their backs against the couch, Hope curled up in Brie's lap and May in Lee's.

It's times like this when I realise how truly young they still are. They shouldn't be dealing with this shit.

Lee runs her fingers through May's hair, she can't seem to let her go now, even when Heather tries to wiggle her way in-between them.

Liam doesn't seem to have a care in the world, hardly acknowledging everything that's happened around him, still truly invested in his screen as he lays back on the couch. Damn kids and their technology these days...

"Well thank fuck for this, my wedding is in like nine days and I was seriously starting to think that mini Thompson would have to walk me down the fucking aisle. I don't need his abs stealing focus from my dress." Fucking charming!

The breakfast club all burst out laughing but I can tell there's a hint of seriousness in Brie's tone, she probably would have made me wear a suit that was three sizes too fucking big just in case.

Although since Josh hasn't seen me in an actual suit since I was fourteen... I'm pretty sure I'm going to give him heart palpitations either way.

That tux is definitely not making it to the reception...

Lee reaches over, allowing one of her hands to leave May and stroke Brie's cheek, while they look at each other as if none of this ever fucking happened.

It's something I've always really loved and envied about their relationship, no matter what, they always bounce back. I love Josh, Jayce loves Lee and Steve loves Brie, but those two right there have something so special. A unique bond that very few people will ever feel in their lives.

"Oh God, I would never do that to you beaut. Besides, like fuck is anybody else walking you down the aisle. I haven't put up with you for this long just for Milo fucking Thompson to come steal my limelight." They all start laughing again but I'm not sure when it became acceptable for me to become the punchline of all of their fucking jokes.

Steve almost kicks over the Christmas tree with his insanely large legs as he tries to get up, Liam chuckling at the look that Brie gives him when the star Heather made two years ago starts to shake on the top.

Brie has been weirdly possessive about Christmas since her and Steve got together, so never fuck with her tree.

Josh laughs, but when I turn to face him I realise he's staring straight at the ceiling, a perfect bunch of mistletoe hanging right above our heads.

"Oh here they fucking go." Brie grumbles upon noticing where our eyes lay but I don't give a fuck, grabbing the back of Josh's head and bringing him into the kiss that I've so desperately needed for the last three days.

I fucking love Christmas.